The latest novel coronavirus epidemic in Japan has further disrupted the production plans of Toyota and other Japanese automakers, according to foreign media reports.
On Jan. 20, Toyota said it would suspend production at 21 production lines at its 11 Japanese plants for four days, starting on Jan. 17. Toyota was forced to temporarily close its Japanese plant because more and more workers at Toyota's Japanese plant and its suppliers were infected with novel coronavirus.
Toyota has 14 factories in Japan. In January, Toyota's production loss in Japan will expand to 47000 vehicles, more than double the 20, 000 previously announced production cuts due to lack of cores. The shutdown is expected to affect production of Toyota's Crown sedan and Land Cruiser SUV.
Toyota Aichi Prefecture (Aichi) Tsutsumi plant has been a series of novel coronavirus infection cases. Toyota reported four new cases of novel coronavirus infection at the plant on Jan. 20, bringing the total to 18. The infection caused the factory to cancel day shift production on January 19 and night production on January 20. Toyota did not elaborate on the novel coronavirus infection of its suppliers.
Toyota had predicted that its global production target of 9 million vehicles would not be met this fiscal year (2021.4.1-2022.3.31) due to tight supply of chips. Toyota's production fell to 700000 vehicles in February, down from the 900000 it told suppliers at the end of December.
The wave of Omicron infection sweeping Japan has hindered the production of the Japanese automobile industry. Toyota subsidiary Dafa Motor (Daihatsu Motor) suspended some production at its headquarters in Osaka Prefecture due to the spread of novel coronavirus infection from a supplier. On January 20, Dafa Motor said that from January 21, the shutdown of the plant would be extended for another two days, resulting in a four-day suspension of some production. Dafa had already begun to cut production after about 30 workers at a factory in (Shiga), Shiga prefecture, were infected with novel coronavirus.
The surge in novel coronavirus cases has led to a shortage of other spare parts. Honda said on January 20th that it expected passenger car production at its Suzuka plant in Sanzhong prefecture to be 10 per cent lower than planned. Previously, the factory had been operating according to the production plan. The Yorii plant in Honda's Saitama prefecture cut production by 10 per cent in January and is expected to resume normal production in February.
In November, Honda expected its global production to return to originally planned levels from January. But the continuing epidemic in Southeast Asia has led to a downturn in supply, especially for parts and components using semiconductors. In December, floods in Malaysia brought the business of other parts makers to a standstill.
Nissan cut car production in December and is busy buying parts to restore production. Since December, Suzuki's current capacity is about 70% of what it planned at the beginning of the fiscal year.
In November, Japan's top eight carmakers produced 2.18 million passenger cars worldwide. Although car production in the month was lower than in the same period in 2020, it was up more than 40 per cent from 1.53 million in August. The increase in novel coronavirus cases and the supply chain crisis could delay the recovery of Japanese automakers.
